ChronoSync™ v3.3.4

ChronoSync ($30) “is an easy to use data management tool that allows you to efficiently synchronize files and folders from one disk location to another. Using the document-based interface, you can easily identify a group of files, specify a destination, then schedule the action to occur as often as necessary”

I am a big fan, neigh obsessive, about backing up data and have posted about it before on my site. I have a pretty simple routine, in that I always partition my drives into two (System and Data) and my library and “day to day” documents sit on the System partition whilst my Music, Pictures and Videos (raw footage) sit on my Data partition. This Data partition is backed up to an external drive every month, and at least twice a year I update my archived DVD’s to make sure that I have EVERYTHING backed up twice, with one copy stored outside of the apartment.

I am always happy to look at any alternative application for the day to day, incremental files that I want to ensure that I have back ups of, but I don’t want to have to “manually” manage on a daily basis. I was particularly interested in ChronoSync’s claim that:

“The most powerful aspect of ChronoSync is scheduling. Create multiple synchronizer documents and schedule them separately or combine them in a ChronoSync Container to schedule them together. You can schedule any synchronization to be performed automatically on a recurring basis to ensure files get reliably updated when needed. All scheduled documents are listed in a Scheduled Documents Manager window so it is easy to manage your synchronizations. Best of all, your synchronizations can be performed without ChronoSync running. A background application monitors the synchronized document schedule and performs scheduled synchronizations automatically. To ensure reliability, email notification can be sent allowing you to monitor synchronizations remotely.” This really is impressive, and very useful.

Whether you want to archive your files, automatically schedule backups, backup your Mac, or synchronize two computers you can do so in a smart and safe way due to their ‘relative state monitoring’ which:

* Detect deleted, moved, or renamed files and folders.
* Move deleted files to a special folder for later retrieval.
* Detect modifications in both locations and alert you of conflicts.

My Favorite Feature: Without doubt the ease with which it backed up across my network to another Mac.SShot.jpg

Once you are connected to your external volume over the network it is a simple case of selecting which files you want to synchronize and where you want them to reside and off you go.

This application is well worth a look.

For Existing Users: “Version 3.3 is a significant update. The most notable change has been made to how ChronoSync defines the operations it performs and presents the choice of these operations to the user. What was previously a multi step process has been reduced to a single pop-up menu labeled “Operation” in the “Setup” panel.

Other notable changes include better preservation of exotic metadata, preservation of folder time-stamps and new synchronization triggers for BSD flags and file/folder timestamps. Last, but certainly not least, ChronoSync v3.3 has been localized in four major languages: English, French, German and Japanese. It is the first Econ Technologies product to be offered in a language other than English.”

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